Simon Cowell’s acid tongue may actually have saved a person’s life. Cowell is also a judge on “X Factor,” which is the UK version of “American Idol.” Contestant Jacqui Gray auditioned in front of Cowell and Sharon Osbourne. Both seemed to sense something was amiss in the singer’s voice, though it’s hard to tell without actually seeing the episode if they were just being very specifically mean, or were actually concerned for the singer.

“‘You have a very odd-sounding voice,’ Cowell, 47, told the nightclub singer after she finished her rendition of Labi Siffri’s ‘Something Inside So Strong.’ ‘Something happens to your throat when you sing. It is quite raspy. It sounds as if you have someone else in there, like you were choking on something.’

“Fellow co-judge Sharon Osbourne, 54, advised the 46-year-old mother of two ‘get it checked out,’ and then cut her from the competition. Luckily, Gray took their advice. ‘I thought I was suffering from a chest infection or swollen glands,’ she said. She went to an ear, nose and throat specialist who found a shadow on her lungs during a chest scan and diagnosed a potentially fatal lung disease.

“‘I was diagnosed with bronchiectasis and told if I had not got it seen to, it could have killed me.’ Matthew Hiltzik, a spokesman for Cowell, said, ‘Simon was genuinely concerned about her voice and is glad she sought the proper medical attention and received the necessary care. He was happy to help.’”

[From Us Weekly]

Simon Cowell, brilliant diagnostician. I don’t know that I really buy the whole “Simon Cowell really cares/ Simon was really worried for her line” – I mean it is Simon Cowell, I doubt he could have resisted passing up an opportunity to make fun of something so specific. Either way, Jacqui Gray certainly doesn’t hold a grudge after being eliminated.

“Gray, meanwhile, may be the first contestant to be rejected by the judges and thank them afterwards. ‘I want to thank them both,” she said. ‘I may not have got through X Factor but they gave me something much more important than that…they really did save my life.’”

[From Us Weekly]

Now if only Simon could leave all the contestants a little better off than they were before they met him. A brain for one, a heart for another, courage for the one that ran out of the room crying. He seems to have this very unique ability to spot ailments that go undetected by less-evolved naked human eyes. So though I never thought I’d say it, today Simon Cowell is a Good Celebrity.

Picture Note by Jaybird: Here’s Simon at various “American Idol” promotional appearances. Does his haircut make anyone else angry? It makes me angry. What man has a part down the middle and a flat top? Images thanks to PR Photos.